National History Day

Gabrielle has been working hard on this research project for her honors block class. They had to choose any topic in history and present it under the theme of "Debate and Diplomacy". She chose to do her project on Title IX. She did an exhibit and also had to write a process paper. After the school level, she was one of the ones chosen to take her display to the regional competition. She had to speak with the judges about her topic and explain how her topic related to the theme. During the process, she even was able to correspond with a woman that worked to get Title IX passed in 1972. She had three different sections highlighting women in sports, politics, and education. She learned a lot, but I am sure she is glad it's over! Good work, Gabrielle!

Reminder

Usually I shoo Sydney off the couch. Especially when I have just cleaned it. But sometimes this dog is just cute. Here she is all cozied up on the couch this weekend. Had to take this photo to remind myself I love her, even when she does naughty things like counter surf.

Another Snow Day?

Actually I would call this a slush day. We had some freezing rain and snow mix yesterday after school. Gabrielle and I went out to scrape it off the driveway and she rolled up this little snow person. Cute, huh? Now school is out today. Crazy!

Mission: Cooking!

This week I was asked by the Young Men's President to teach a little simple cooking to the young men to prepare them for their missions and beyond. It was a lot of fun and I think they learned a few things, too. I focused on breakfasts, but did a few other things as well. I first did a demo of a foil dinner and got it in the oven so it could be baking while we did the rest of the class. The foil dinner included pork tenderloin, potatoes and carrots. Then we went into the breakfasts-- I showed them and had them make a simple fritata (which is basically a baked omelette) with ham and cheese. I also showed them how to make an egg in a cup in the microwave to make into a perfect egg mc muffin sandwich. Then I taught them how to make pancakes from scratch, because they may not always be able to get a ready made mix. They were excellent pancake flippers! Then they tried their hands at making a mini pizza on an english muffin. They turned out great. By then our foil dinner was ready to taste. Perfect! We also learned that clean up is a part of cooking-- dishes were done with a great attitude! I also talked about packing a healthy snack to get you through the morning or afternoon. I gave them Jared's trail mix recipe for that, plus I had made ahead of time the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies. Anyone can make those! My favorite part was when I was showing them how to whip up some eggs with a fork and one of them said, "She's like a ninja with that thing!" and making all the appropriate sound affects. To end we all sang a song I taught them at the beginning-- It's like a third verse of "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" It goes "I hope when I am on a mission, that I can cook a thing or two. For myself and also my companion, because we can't call home and ask Mom what to do!" 

Are you kidding? We love to do the dishes!

Chef Jaden-- already a pro in the kitchen!

These are some good pancakes, guys!

See all the recipes they learned at my recipe blog runnelsfamrecipes.blogspot.com

Josh Groban

Guess what I'll be doing on May 25th??? 
Yep, got my tickets this morning on a pre-sale.
I am so excited! It's in Kansas City at the Sprint Center, too. One of my favorite venues.
Can't wait!

Valentines

For Valentine's Day, Jared took time out of his busy day to have lunch with me. He's nice like that. Later that day Jared brought home flowers. He said he almost didn't get me flowers. He almost got me a new shower head. I would have been happy either way. I'm nice like that. For dinner we did the "Melting Pot" meal with the girls. Gabrielle made the brownies and Madison decorated the table. We had fun dipping, especially the dessert chocolate fondue.

 So you see, flowers + chocolate + love = a very

(and maybe I'll get that shower head for Mother's Day!)

Airplane Cake

Here is the airplane birthday cake I did on Friday for Mr. Mouse Man-- Ike. Oh the sad story that is about to begin after this photo was taken!

After I got it boxed up and ready to go, I was carrying the cake out to the car and punched the garage door opener. Up went the garage door, out went the curious little Mia dog--running free! The girls run after Mia. Meanwhile, big dog Sydney is running all about, very interested in the dog food bin in the garage, so she did not run out. At one point she even jumped in the car. I get her and the cake back inside the house and then go outside to look for Mia and the girls. That was where I made the big mistake-- dog alone in house with cake. In my haste I just put the box with the cake in it on the end table, so Sydney proceeded to help herself to the top tier of the cake. Oh yes. I go back in to find the top cake in crumbles all over the bottom of the box (ironically none on the floor!) I tried to remain calm and get it back upstairs to fix it. I sent Jared a text that read, "Sydney ate top tier of cake. Starting over!" I called the birthday boy's mama and explained that I had a "little mishap" with the cake. I go into the "my dog at my homework" story and told her I would fix it. She was so understanding about it, even laughing at it, and said not to worry! They are 3-year olds! Is that the nicest you could ever be or what? My hungry dog eats her son's birthday cake and she says, no big deal! We had also made cupcake toppers, so that was lucky. I also had some more little cupcakes in the freezer that I pulled out to give her. I ended up scraping all the crumpled crumbled mess out and cleaning up the bottom tier (It actually survived except the back where the top tier was dragged over it to it's death!) I re-piped the white borders and made a fondant topper to cover the supports in the bottom tier. I packed it all up again and made it over to her house in one piece! So, Sydney gets the bad dog of the month award and I have learned a valuable lesson- do not leave dog in house alone with fresh cake at dog eye level, especially close to her dinner time!